KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 — Financial institutions in Malaysia successfully prevented suspicious and fraudulent transactions worth RM383 million from January to December 2023, said the Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM).

Industry Task Force on Measures to Combat Financial Scams chairman Datuk John Chong said the achievement by 15 banks in Malaysia underscored their unwavering commitment to robust fraud prevention measures.

Chong, who is also the Maybank group chief executive officer of global banking, said the implementation of various security measures, tightening of fraud monitoring parameters, and heightened counter-fraud controls continue to produce positive momentum and results in combating suspicious and fraudulent transactions.

“According to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), there was 58 per cent reduction of unauthorised online banking transactions reported to the National Scam Response Centre over a five-month period,” he said at the #JanganKenaScam Fraud Workshop for Media Professionals today.

Chong said the banks had implemented five key measures propounded by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to combat scams since July 2023.

The five key measures are migrating from SMS one-time passwords (OTP), tightening the banks’ fraud detection rules, allowing only a single mobile device or secure device to be registered, verification and cooling-off period for first-time enrolment of e-banking services or secure devices, and 24/7 dedicated complaint channel for customers.

In addition, the banks have also proactively put in place other security measures, such as refraining from sending SMS or emails with hyperlinks, enforcing mobile applications to only operate on a secure version of the operating systems, kill switches, brand monitoring and verification of secure authentication method at ATM, followed by a cooling-off period.

“In our efforts to holistically tackle financial fraud on a wider scale, banks will implement similar fraud countermeasures for non-retail banking segments in the coming months, under the guidance of BNM.

“We will enforce strong Multifactor Authentication (MFA) and a cooling-off period for any MFA activation of third-party transfer limit increase, with timely customer notification,” he said, adding that there will be dedicated 24/7 hotlines.

Chong added that banks are also continuously assessing other practical means to safeguard customers further, such as detecting malware in Android Package Kits (APKs). — Bernama